IT and Science: New supercomputer to unravel mysteries of the universe

Researchers from Durham University (county in the North East of England) hope that a new £1.9 million ($3 million) supercomputer “Cosma 4” will help them to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

The state-of-the-art device for data processing will allow scientists of university’s Institute of Computational Cosmology (ICC) to build on the ground-breaking work.

The Cosmology Machine Supercomputer “Cosma 4” has a memory of 15,4 terabytes (1 terabyte equals 1024 gigabytes) - the equivalent of 7,500 normal home PCs. It boasts a disc storage capacity of a petabyte, or a million gigabytes.

Durham University said in a statement: “Among the theories the ICC will be testing is that of dark matter - a mysterious substance which scientists believe is required to explain galaxy motions that would otherwise violate the laws of physics”.

The ICC is a leading international centre for research into the origin and evolution of the universe, addressing some of the most fundamental questions in science, such as how did the universe begin and how did it evolve to its current state. The technology available to researchers through “Cosma 4” will ensure that they can continue to advance in their quest to figure out how the universe works.